Geek Weekly: Our top weird tech stories

Technology Decisions’ weekly wrap of IT fails, latest tech, new must-have gadgets, ‘computer says no’ moments and more.

Apple’s flexibility reaches new highs. Or lows, really. Bend-gate, they’re calling it. Imagine spending almost $1000 for a product that can’t keep its shape. We know that some mobile phone manufacturers are spending a fortune developing devices with bendy screens, but Apple’s bendy iPhone 6 Plus was a bit of a surprise. Well, we suppose all those Apple fans should be grateful that they’re getting a surprise, extra feature for nothing. It’s just like in the good old days when assembly programmers would discover undocumented op-codes in a CPU chip. Bonanza!

Blackberry bets on boxy phone. Some are calling it ‘bizarre’. Sir Humphrey Appleby might call it “courageous”. Either way, Blackberry’s forthcoming Passport will buck the smartphone trend and have a squarish (presumably unbendy) form factor. The company says the wide screen will be better for viewing spreadsheets, while the physical Qwerty keyboard doubles as a swipe bar. It’s priced to undercut the iPhone 6, but it remains to be seen whether Blackberry can lift its share of the smartphone market - presently just 0.5% in Australia, compared to 66.5% for Android and 27% for iOS.

Bionic brains will be analog. Researchers at the University of Tennessee have merged analog computational circuitry with machine learning systems to produce a computer chip that uses only 0.3% of the electrical power of a comparable digital one. They hope the technology can be developed into devices that can be used for “self-dosing medicinal implants or devices capable of synthesising nerve impulses to damaged limbs”. Steve Austin would be proud:

When your car just won’t listen. Around 25% of US motorists use their car’s voice recognition system, but not everyone’s happy. According to research by J.D. Power & Associates, reported by the Insurance Journal, the failure of voice control systems to recognise commands is new-car owners’ number one complaint. Globally, it is expected that 68 million cars will have voice control by the year 2020, up from 37 million this year. It seems drivers are expecting conversations with their cars to be as easy as with their smartphones. Just don’t bend your car.

Home Depot needs some data DIY. The company that calls itself the world’s biggest home improvement retailer needs to do some improving to its data security systems. Home Depot says the recent breach of its systems led to 56 million credit and debit cards being compromised - one of the biggest breaches ever. The company says that custom-made malware evaded detection between April and September this year, affecting more than 1100 stores throughout the US and Canada. Home Depot says it has fixed the problem on the US side of the border, but Canada is still a work in progress. As Effie used to say, “how embarrassment!”

Image courtesy MacRumors/PD13